1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to acoustic microphone support devices. More specifically, the present invention pertains to percussion instrument internal microphone stands and isolation means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Percussion instruments include a family of instruments that produce sounds when struck, shaken or rubbed with a secondary object. The sound is produced by the vibration of instrument and interaction with surrounding air after initial perturbation. Included in this family of instruments are drums, including drum kits that utilize an array of drum designs to create different frequency sounds. The drum types that pertain to the present invention include those with a rigid outer shell and a sufficient internal cavity to place a microphone and support structure for recording purposes. These include bass drums, floor toms or the like.
Capturing sound from these types of percussion instruments can be a difficult task. The nature of the instrument introduces considerable vibration and reverberation that may interfere with the recording process. These effects are interactions with the structure of the drum, the microphone support structure and the microphone itself, which can distort the sound and change its characteristics during recording. Percussionists, audio technicians and engineers have tried several means for recording percussion instruments while eliminating the resonating components during performances and studio sessions, but most share a common drawback of not properly isolating the recording means. Those that incorporate isolation tend to ignore modularity in the support structure, which provides multiple configurations with regard to microphone positioning and the type of microphone being supported. Flexibility of the design is highly desired in live recording sessions, where artists and engineers are striving to create new sounds or record high fidelity audio.
Typically microphones are rigidly mounted within the cavity of a drum or supported in a static configuration that is difficult to change or adapt if an unwanted sound or secondary noise source is disrupting the sound being recorded. Adapting the position of the microphone and its mounting scheme improves the technician's ability to filter out unwanted noise and refine desired sounds, accommodating further creativity of the artist. This is especially true in those performances where an artist may want to produce a unique sound from a percussion instrument, or record one that has improved quality over another. By changing a microphone setup, or by accommodating secondary isolating means, the recorded music may be altered to a different style or tone, or the sound quality may be improved.
Devices have been introduced and disclosed in the art that describe microphone mounting structures and methods. These include devices that can be grouped into two categories: those that employ a rigid mounting scheme and those that include isolation means but lack modularity in regards to microphone location. Both of these are drawbacks in the art in which the present invention remedies. The present disclosure is a new microphone support with all of the advantages of the art without their drawbacks.
Devices in the prior art include U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,937 to Pozar, in which a magnetic pickup assembly is mounted on a support member and extends across the interior of a drum shell. While this device provides support for an internal microphone, the supports are of significant rigidity that drum shell vibration and internal air reverberation may cause the structure and microphone to vibrate or resonate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,522 to May is another similar device in which an adjustable microphone mount is disclosed for attachment to the interior shell of a drum. This device is capable of reorienting the attached microphone, however its position is relatively stationary, and its mounting rigidity along the drum shell introduces considerable vibration into the microphone during recording. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,121,528 to May includes a rigidly designed structure that supports an internal microphone stand. In total, these devices provide little vibration attenuation or isolation for the microphone, which is introduced through its connection means attached to the shell structure of the drum. As the drum head is struck, vibrations are directly transmitted into the microphone support structure. The vibrations may disrupt the desired sounds and enter the recording as static, background noise or a source that blankets the desired sound.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2007/0295189 to Kelly is another object in the prior art that describes a bracket to support a microphone internal to a drum, and one is suspended via a plurality of elastomeric cords. The cords provide for a modular mounting location of the bracket within the cavity of the drum. While this device is useful for isolating and locating the microphone in various positions within the drum, it requires several straps and mounting locations along the drum shell for the straps to function. The type of structure suspended by the straps is also limited to one structure and is not capable of supporting several microphone types.
The present invention is an advancement in the art of positioning and isolating microphone within a drum cavity. The present invention comprises a vibration isolating scaffold that supports different microphone types and for varying locations within the drum cavity. Vertically oriented support straps comprising an elastomeric material are situated within the drum and attach to its shell using a series of lugs. The support straps act as stanchions for two horizontally oriented extension straps of similar material, which span the support straps to form two opposing H-frames. The frames provide support for several embodiments of microphone supports, including a flat plane that can be angled and tilted as desired, a hollow flat plane with an internal wire harness for suspending a microphone, and finally arm extensions from a flat plane. The use of elastomeric material for the straps provides damping capability to isolate the microphones, while the design of the frames provides modularity in the microphone support structure. In an alternate embodiment, the support straps are replaced with drive screw mechanisms and electric motors, and the flat plane is replaced with a fore-aft conveyor belt. In this embodiment, the position of the plane and the microphone can be altered without entering the cavity of the drum, and from an external controller. This allows fine tuning of the microphone position for audio technicians and engineers to achieve the desired fidelity within the drum.